As used herein, the term “television service delivery system” refers to any method and/or apparatus for delivering television programming to viewers, including, but not limited to, digital broadcast satellite (DBS), analog cable networks, digital cable networks, switched digital video (SDV) networks delivered via a telephone connection, and land-based radio frequency antenna broadcast.
The various modes of delivering television service, including those mentioned above, are herein termed “transport mechanisms” or “transport streams”. The term “television service provider” refers to an entity that provide television service delivery systems, e.g., a local cable television company in the case of analog or digital cable. The term “subscriber” refers to any individual, household or other entity that receives television service from a television service provider. In almost all television service delivery systems other than land-based antenna broadcasts, the subscriber actually enters into a service contract with the television service provider in order to subscribe to the television service. In land-based antenna television service, anyone with a television in the geographic area reached by the broadcaster can receive the television service without any contract with the broadcaster. Nevertheless, in this specification, the term “subscriber” is intended to include such entities. The term head-end refers to the node of the network or other television service delivery system from which television programming is transmitted to the receiving nodes, i.e., to the subscriber nodes.
Television service delivery systems typically deliver a plurality of channels of television programming to subscribers. The subscribers, through channel selection via a set-top box (STB) or through the tuner of the television itself, select one or more of those channels to view at any given time. Traditionally, television service providers transmit the same data on each channel to all of its subscribers. Specifically, each programming channel contains the exact same content, including advertisements, for all subscribers.
Many television service delivery systems, including analog cable, digital cable, DBS and SDV employ STBs that the subscriber must couple between the incoming signal (e.g., the cable, antenna or telephone line) and his or her television set(s). These STBs can provide substantially enhanced functionality to the television service provider as well as the subscriber. For instance, the STBs can be programmed to either allow or not allow the subscriber to view certain programming channels. As is well known to any cable television subscriber, certain channels are considered premium channels and cost extra to receive. Thus, if a person selects to receive certain premium channels, the subscriber's STB is programmed to descramble those channels (if transmitted in a scrambled format) or otherwise not block the subscriber's ability to view them.
Most television channels include both programming and advertisements interspersed throughout the programming. Typically, a particular advertiser will purchase a particular “spot”, i.e., an advertising opportunity in a particular channel at a particular time, based on the likelihood that members of that advertiser's target audience will be watching that particular channel at that particular time. For instance, advertisers typically have a particular demographic group of individuals that they wish to reach with their advertising. For example, the manufacturer of a low-cost beer probably has a primary target audience of males between the ages of 21 and 39, living in households with a household annual income of less than $75,000 per year. As another example, a manufacturer of laundry detergent may have a primary target audience of women between 19–59 years of age with no particular preference regarding household income. As another example, a manufacturer of expensive beer may wish to have a target audience similar to that of the manufacturer of low-cost beer in that it comprises males between the ages of 21 and 39. However, this manufacturer's target demographic audience may include a different economic profile, e.g., males between the ages of 21 and 39, living in households with annual household incomes of over $60,000 per year. Another advertiser that manufactures children's toys appropriate for children between 5 and 10 years of age might have a target audience of children between the ages of 5 and 10 and, depending upon the particular toys, a desired annual household income range.
Factors such as time of day and the particular program that is being broadcast on a particular channel can be used as predictors of the type of persons likely to be watching the television and particular channel when a particular advertisement is displayed. For instance, children are more likely to be viewing television during the daytime than adults. Further, men are more likely to be watching sporting events than women. However, time of day and type of program are not perfect indicators of the viewing audience. For instance, Monday Night Football traditionally would be considered a program/timeslot that would present advertisers with a large number of male viewers between the ages of 21 and 39. However, those viewers are likely to span the entire annual household income range. Accordingly, a large portion of the target audiences of both the low-cost beer manufacturer and the premium beer manufacturer can be expected to view Monday Night Football. However, by the same token, both beer manufacturers will pay a premium price to advertise during Monday Night Football, even though a large portion of the audience does not comprise their target audience. For instance, the premium beer manufacturer will be reaching many men living in households within a lower income range who are unlikely to purchase the premium beer because of its high cost. That manufacturer nevertheless pays the premium price for that advertising spot.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for advertising in television and other media.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for more narrowly reaching one's target audience in television advertising.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus by which advertisements can be inserted into television programming channels in a more targeted fashion than traditional advertising mechanisms.